Git alias doesn't do the same thing as the aliased command

Question

I'm still relatively new to Git, so perhaps I'm doing something stupid, but I have a weird issue...

I defined a stage alias for add --all, because I find it shorter and more self-explanatory:

D:\MyProject [master +0 ~1 -1]> git config alias.stage "add --all"
D:\MyProject [master +0 ~1 -1]> git config alias.stage
add --all

But when I run git stage ., it behaves as if the --all option was omitted:

D:\MyProject [master +0 ~1 -1]> git stage .
warning: You ran 'git add' with neither '-A (--all)' or '--ignore-removal',
whose behaviour will change in Git 2.0 with respect to paths you removed.
Paths like 'MyProject.Tests/AssertExtensions.cs' that are
removed from your working tree are ignored with this version of Git.

* 'git add --ignore-removal <pathspec>', which is the current default,
  ignores paths you removed from your working tree.

* 'git add --all <pathspec>' will let you also record the removals.

Run 'git status' to check the paths you removed from your working tree.

D:\MyProject [master +0 ~1 -0 | +0 ~0 -1]> 

However, running git add --all . gives the expected result.

What could be causing this, and how can I fix it?

(I'm using msysgit and posh-git on Windows)

---

UPDATE: if I rename the alias to stg, it works fine!! I just realized that there is already a stage command in Git, and it's a synonym for add... so I can't override it.

Answer 1

Git already has a built-in stage command, and it's a synonym for add... And apparently it's not possible to override a built-in command with an alias. If I rename the alias to stg, it works fine.